Sunday, March 09, 2008 Abrenian Cuisine: A Treat Worth The Effort By Laarni Sibayan-Ilagan
ABRA cuisine (loosely used) except for the usual fiesta fare like lechon, is very simple and like its people, the Abrenians, influenced by Spanish culture.
Cuisine defined as "foods and methods of preparation traditional to a region or population. The major factors shaping a cuisine are climate, which in large measure determines the native raw materials available to the cook; economic conditions, which regulate trade in delicacies and imported foodstuffs; and religious or sumptuary laws, under which certain foods are required (Encyclopedia Britannica. online)."
Abra's climate is divided into two -- the dry (I consider as summer) season from November to May, and the wet season for the rest of the year.
Cuisine is a French term pertaining to a specific style of cooking, or a country's food in general. A style of cooking or a specific set of cooking traditions and practices often associated with a specific culture. Religious food laws can also exercise a strong influence on cuisine. A cuisine is primarily influenced by the ingredients that are available locally or through trade. (Wikepedia Answers.Com)
Abra food for me is lechon stuffed with karimbuaya, palileng, nakamatisan nga bunolan, pinakbet nga nasagpawan ti chicharron, dried lentils nga naidengdeng nga nasagpawan ti dried palileng, and a lot more.
Summer is the time for "abuos" or ant eggs from the big, red ants. Gathered by poking a hole through their nest perched on treetops to get their precious eggs, the rich and tangy taste of the sauteed abuos with garlic, onions, and lowland tomatoes is a rare delicacy.
The "kampa," as it is named by Abrenians is also a very rare fish said to be found only in Abra river abound during the summer, especially in the municipality of Lagayan.
Its white flesh and delicate flavor is at its best when cooked simply a la sinigang with just pias or barusbus (young tamarind leaves) and salt to taste.
Similar to another river fish called "bunog" in Ilocano or "bunolan" in Penarrubia Itneg but bigger in size, the kampa's current price at the Bangued public market is P1,500 a kilo due to its tasty flesh and rarity, according to Agnes Pagtailan, who maintains a popular turo-turo for students at the neighborhood of Zone 4, Bangued.
Although not as rare as the kampa, hence cheaper and more readily available, the bunog with its sturdier taste can be cooked in various ways like with sukang iloko (sugarcane) and salt, or sinigang with barusbus, or when dried a very healthy addition to Abra's version of dinengdeng, or simply deep fried.
Most fish sold in Bangued comes from "sur-surong" or upriver from the upland municipalities of Abra, and armed with a fin-like suction on their necks enabling them to cling to the rocks and survive the strong currents of the Abra River.
Still smaller than the bunog and kampa, is the palileng which when cooked with plain vinegar and salt with a very minimum amount of water and eaten with steaming rice, who needs meat?
But I will always associate palileng with a lentil dish my grandmother Claudia used to cook. My grandmother used to cook the dried palileng (1 to 2 inches long) in a soupy dish with dried and ground lentils with little lowland native tomatoes and small onions (if available) and salt in boiling water inside an earthen pot. Again, this dish is best eaten with steaming hot rice. Simple.
Never Complete
Summer in Abra is not complete for little boys and girls and even grown-ups without spending at least a day in the farm to eat Cascaron.
Cascaron is just the treat after learning the process of how molasses (in various shapes and sizes) is produced; from the gathering of the sugarcane, to the tedious, dizzying and time-consuming going round and round of the carabao to move the wooden contraption to squeeze the juice, then the boiling inside the humongous vats called "siliasi" in very high heat.
It is at the point when the juice has turned brown and sticky called "tagapulot" that the malagkit prepared earlier and shaped into small balls with coconut and sesame seeds inside are poured into the vat. Once they float, they are cooked and time to remove them with a contraption made out of a long bamboo pole with a roughly woven "linaga" basket-like container at the end.
Another well-known Abra delicacy comes with the earthy and musky smell of May when the first rain showers come after a very dry and hot summer, a heady perfume which heralds the arrival of the wet season, is the "abal-abal" or "ab-ableng" in Itneg and "ararawan" a bug in the fields.
The abal-abal looks like a June beetle but darker and gathered during the first rains between May and June along the river banks (ig-igid ti waig) at dusk when they fly out of the sandy soil, where a whole community of abal-abal hunters armed with nets and other proven contraptions are used, some even believe that putting pomade on the hair attracts the abal-abal making it easier to just pick them. (Eeeew)
The abal-abal and ararawan are cooked the same way, with vinegar and a little salt to taste "kinirog" style.
Spanish with a Twist
The Spanish influence, similar to other provinces in the Philippines, in Abra is the love for the cholesterol-rich lechon.
"Lechon is the Spanish word for suckling pig. In the Philippines, it connotes a whole roasted pig, lechon baboy. The process of lechon involves the whole pig/piglet, chicken, or cattle being slowly roasted over charcoal. This day long and arduous method of roasting leaves a crispy skin and very moist meat inside."
"Lechon is often cooked during national festivities (fiestas), holiday season, and other special occasions such as weddings, graduations, birthdays and baptisms, or family get-togethers. The lechon is usually the highlight and the most popular dish. It is usually served with a liver-based sauce. It was originally introduced to the Philippines as part of Spanish cuisine and can be found in many Hispanic countries. Leche means milk in Spanish and lechon originally meant suckling pig."
But in Abra, it is lechon with a tangy twist.
As far as I know, it is only in Abra that the lechon is stuffed with an herb called karimbuaya.
Karimbuaya or Euphorbia neriflolia (scientific name) or soro-soro in Tagalog or Hedge Euphorbia in English is a cactus-like plant has fleshy oblong leaves five to 15 cm. long.
For the lechon stuffing, the thinly sliced leaves of the karimbuaya is the main ingredient seasoned with plenty of chopped garlic, salt and pepper mashed and mixed together by hand to bring out the zesty-tangy-garlicky-spicy smell, then stuffed inside the hollow stomach of the pig before the actual roasting to permeate the whole pig with the strong flavors of the herb-stuffing and invite the neighbors far and wide with the mouth-watering smell.
Whether roasted the traditional way outside the house in the open or like what they now do in Abra where the lechon is now roasted in the big ovens of the "pagbibingkaan," no lechon whether a suckling pig or chicken, is complete without the karimbuaya stuffing.
Its tangy taste complements perfectly the succulent taste of the pig, and removes the "umay" and instead of liver sauce loved in other provinces, Abrenians prefer to eat their lechon with the karimbuaya stuffing and kamatis-bagoong-lasona or bagoong with kalamansi/perres. Sinful isn't it?
Even the Abrenian version of the ilokano "bagnet" or "lechon kawali" in Tagalog has a new twist.
Instead of calling it bagnet, Abrenians know it as "chicharron."
According to Manang Agnes, "in the Ilocos, as far as I know, they deep fry their bagnet only once. In Abra, we do it twice, iparutok mi." Hence, the crispy skin, a treat Abrenians love.
Abra's chicharron goes well with pinakbet, done the Ilokano way, or if freshly chicharroned, with KBL or again with bagoong and perres with steaming rice.
Of Lightings and Mushrooms
Rainy season: August -- uong tao, uong saba, (mushroom) cooked adobo-style with sukang iloko from sugarcane fermented with herbs (sorry I didn't get the name), garlic or dinengdeng/sinulad (in Itneg) style with wild ampalaya leaves.
In Penarrubia, old folks believe lightning bring out the mushrooms.
My grandmothers will always say "agkimkimat agpatubo ta uong," whenever I get afraid of the lightning, and true enough, the next day an uncle or a lolo will bring home early in the morning mushrooms they chanced upon the farm or well known spots where mushrooms have been known to sprout from.
People already have their own established "secret" wild mushroom patches, and the race to find the first and most number of wild mushroom is on -- the earlier the better -- a sort of a race or game for folks.
Men and women wake up early armed with flashlights or in the old days a tin lamp fueled with carburo, and a sharp eye to distinguish the dark brown umbrella shaped dome of the mushrooms with one to two inches white stems once fully grown from the dead leaves.
As a child of seven, I'll never forget the time when my grandmother and I chanced upon a whole area full of mushrooms (uuong ti saba) smaller than uong ti tao under a bamboo grove one rainy August, while we were gathering "tigi" to feed the pigs.
I had so much fun from the gathering to the cleaning, to the actual preparation and cooking under the tutelage of my grandmother. I felt so proud and so grown-up.
A must padala for relatives working and living abroad for most Abrenians are the wild mushrooms (uong tao) cooked adobo-style with sukang Iloko (to preserve the concoction) with a pinch of salt and a dash of ground pepper, and lovingly packed and sealed in recycled glass peanut butter or mayonnaise bottles.
With a of bottle of uong, for Abrenians abroad, is like partaking of all the flavors and memories of their hometowns packed in a recycled glass bottle.
